Discover the numerous advantages of participating in Dry January, including better sleep, weight management, and enhanced mental health. This article delves into the week-by-week positive impacts of abstaining from alcohol for a month.
Giving up alcohol for a month can have benefits for your sleep, your weight, and your mental wellbeing. It’s easy to think of Dry January – a time when people give up alcohol for a month – as something that can’t make a real difference to your wellbeing. It’s just a month, after all. How much can change? Quite a lot, it turns out. Taking a month off from alcohol poses major benefits for your wellbeing, even if you don’t plan to keep up your sobriety once the month is done.
In fact, you can see benefits just a week into the challenge (which you can track using a handy app). In 2024, 215,000 Brits officially signed up to the official Dry January challenge organised by Alcohol Change UK, but the actual number of people shunning booze for the month is likely to be much higher. And with sober curiosity on the rise, the number for 2025 might be the biggest yet. Here’s the good you’re doing by committing to Dry January, week by week. Week one: Improved sleep, better hydration, and more energy Priory Group’s addictions expert Dr Niall Campbell explains that within a week of ditching alcohol, your sleep will improve. This is because getting drunk means you typically fall straight into a deep sleep and skip the important rapid eye movement (REM) phase, giving you one to two cycles of REM sleep rather than the recommended six to seven cycles a night. It’s worth noting that in the first week of Dry January you might find it harder to drift off – but while you might get fewer hours of rest they’ll likely be of a higher quality. Alcohol use influences sleeping patterns and it can take time to adjust to a normal sleep cycle that isn’t induced by booze. Plus, withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and restless legs may keep you up at night
DRYJANUARY HEALTHBENEFITS ALCOHOL SLEEP WELLBEING
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